tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post9105509674591492697..comments2024-01-10T17:36:15.040-07:00Comments on The Lippard Blog: Who's behind the financial meltdown?Lippardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-26285449575042484222009-05-28T02:29:07.921-07:002009-05-28T02:29:07.921-07:00Thanks for alerting me to the Volokh site elsewher...Thanks for alerting me to the Volokh site elsewhere. I normally avoid anything that sounds conspiratorial, but this one had an instructive post:<br /><br /><A HREF="http://www.volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_24-2009_05_30.shtml#1243482164" REL="nofollow">The Financial Crisis, Free Markets, and the Nirvana Fallacy</A>David Bernstein, 27 May 2009<br /><br />I'm sure everyone has seen various op-eds, blog posts, and so forth proclaiming that the financial crisis shows that capitalism can't be left "unregulated", and that the end of "free market ideology" is nigh.<br /><br />It seems obvious to me, though, that critics are comparing markets (which were far from unregulated) to a hypothetical, rational, efficient, regulatory system, which is a classic nirvana fallacy.<br /><br />...<br /><br />Sure, if you compare actual market actors to imaginary perfect government officials, government is going to come out looking like a mighty good alternative. But if you compare actual market actors to actual government actors, it hardly seems that the financial crisis shows the latter's superiority to the former, nor does it support the idea that turning over more and more of the economy to the tender mercies of government regulation is likely to benefit the public.Ktisophiloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16718156076583190052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-18033761848863043132009-05-11T21:03:00.000-07:002009-05-11T21:03:00.000-07:00And surely someone like Larry Summers would too .....And surely someone like Larry Summers would too ...Ktisophiloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16718156076583190052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-82123748490434253952009-05-10T18:48:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:48:00.000-07:00I agree completely with Asness's argument.I agree completely with Asness's argument.Lippardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-16524497856267157622009-05-10T18:24:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:24:00.000-07:00Fund manager Cliff Asness defended his industry fr...<A HREF="http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/cliff-asness-i-am-ready-for-my.html" REL="nofollow"><B>Fund manager Cliff Asness defended his industry from the president's "backwards and libelous" charges:</B></A>“Managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients' money as best they can, not to support the president, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their political views. …<br /><br />“The president's attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes.”<br /><br />Well, good luck in recovering from this meltdown if future investors know that presidential politics will trump bankruptcy laws. They already know that <I>both</I> parties in Congress are willing to slap an <I>ex post facto</I> bill of attainder, the latter of which is almost certainly <A HREF="http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/03/crs-biggest-constitutional-.html" REL="nofollow">anti-Constitutional</A> to assuage popular rage over AIG bonuses that Congress had agreed to.Ktisophiloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16718156076583190052noreply@blogger.com